Design and Characterization of a Flexible Wideband Antenna Using Polydimethylsiloxane Composite Substrate

The design and characterization of a simple, flexible wideband antenna using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite are presented. Conductive fibers are used to construct the metallic parts on a PDMS composite. To characterize the performance, two identical antennas are designed, one using the PDMS c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: S. M. Abbas, S. C. Desai, K. P. Esselle, J. L. Volakis, R. M. Hashmi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/4095765
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Summary:The design and characterization of a simple, flexible wideband antenna using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite are presented. Conductive fibers are used to construct the metallic parts on a PDMS composite. To characterize the performance, two identical antennas are designed, one using the PDMS composite while the other on conventional dielectric materials. It was observed that both antennas behave well in terms of the matched bandwidth; however, the radiation towards the broadside direction is reduced when using the PDMS composite as substrate, particularly at higher frequencies. The antenna exhibits a matched bandwidth of 59.9%, ranging from 3.43 to 11.1 GHz. Moreover, the bending analysis carried out for different scenarios show that the wideband behavior of the antenna is well preserved and the variation reaches a maximum of 1% variation.
ISSN:1687-5869
1687-5877